Issues of the quality of water.
The Soquel Creek Water District provides a safe, potable water supply that meets all state and federal standards. In early 2000, we found that we had chromium 6 in several of our water supply wells. We notified the public immediately and convened a panel of experts to inform us and the public of any potential hazard in this chemical. The State of California convened a blue ribbon panel to determine if the then maximum contaminant level of 50 parts per billion was adequate to protect the public. Their answer was 'yes'. Most of the wells had very low levels of chromium 6, although one well had up to 38 parts per billion. By blending water from several wells we were able to deliver water with a maximum of about 18 parts per billion. This is about one third of the allowable amount for drinking water. Although chromium 6 has been determined to be of natural origin, we are seeking ways to reduce the quanity of chromium 6 in the water. In recent months, we found two wells that had very low levels of ascenic. The current maximum safe level for arsenic is 50 parts per billion and will be lowered to 10 parts per billion in 2004. Two of our wells have up to 4 parts per billion of arsenic. The water from both these wells is being blended with other water to further reduce these levels. One of these wells is scheduled for abandonment. There have been concerns about MTBE. There have been MTBE spills at some of our local gas stations. Be assured that no MTBE has entered any of our wells. To make sure that no MTBE ever enters our wells,we have hired an engineering firm that specializes in MTBE clean up. THERE IS NO SALT WATER INTRUSION IN ANY OF OUR PRODUCTION WELLS! For everyone's protection, however, we installed monitoring wells in the early 1980's at the coastline as an early warning system to detect salt water intrusion if it were to occur. We've been monitoring it for 22 years!!
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